Nike recently pulled brand spend away from broad campaigns, redirecting it toward specific persona-led communities. And as if in lockstep, Unilever committed to moving roughly half of its enormous ad budget toward creator-led content. Describing the shift as a move from one-to-many… to many-to-many.
Two of the world’s largest advertisers. Pointing in the same direction.
For decades, the marketing objective for Building Product Brands was simple.
Acquire broad audience and add more names to the database.
That assumption is now being challenged.
Not because brand building matters less. Because relevance matters more.
This should feel familiar. A single product must influence architects, engineers, builders, contractors, dealers and building owners.
Each approaches the decision from a different vantage point.
They do not ask the same questions. They do not carry the same risks. And they should not receive the same message.
Relevance Beats Reach… Different Reasons To Believe
Consider a manufacturer introducing a product designed to simplify installation.
A contractor’s first question is about labor. How fast does it go in? Will the crew need training?
An architect evaluates the same product through specification. Are the technical documents clear? What performance evidence exists? Has the innovative solution been field-tested?
Dealers weigh margin, and whether their team can explain the opportunity confidently.
Builders care most about schedule predictability. And yes, the risk of costly callbacks.
Same product. Same core promise.
Four distinct conversations.
Generic content flattens those differences into a list of features. Segmented content translates the product into the priorities of each audience.
That is the moment marketing begins to feel useful… rather than intrusive.
Data Gives Clues While Sales Can Provide Context
A CRM platform can reveal valuable patterns. Past purchases. Lead scoring and engagement.
Sales teams hear what audiences (when service history is captured) are saying in the field. Where dealers hit resistance. Which objection stalls a specification. And which proof point finally moves a conversation forward.
While marketing seeks to maintain tracking for digital behavior.
Bringing those two perspectives together is where segmentation stops being guesswork.
And starts becoming market understanding.
That is why audience segmentation has quietly become one of the most valuable advantages in digital experience.
It is also – not coincidentally – the discipline of sales and marketing alignment. The single greatest opportunity K&A has spent nearly four decades helping brands in our channel to solve.
AI Can Assist… People Must Decide
Artificial intelligence can accelerate and organize data. Speed, though, is not the same as understanding.
Credibility is earned with intention and practical knowledge.
Contractors want jobsite-ready answers. Architects expect precision. Dealers demand communication that helps them support customers.
Brands must remain responsible for the final judgment.
A Magnifying Glass In A World of Large Language Models
This is where the newest tools deserve a much closer look.
Large language models – today’s AI promise – train on nearly all of it. Breadth is their gift… and their ceiling.
A magnifying glass does the opposite. One lens. Focused until it is sharp enough to act on.
The question for our channel was never how much AI can see. It is how focused – and how relevant – brands can aim opportunities.
AI can tell you what an audience does. It cannot tell you who they are. It maps generalized behavior, and time modeling… but knowing unique audiences still takes human interaction.
With new tools adept in agility, candor and the instinct to read a room. Not merely mass datasets.
Out of K&A’s focus on the Building Products channel now comes our Vertical Persona Panel.
Built to aim that lens.
And to answer the question: What if Building Product Brands had a way to pressure-test messaging, positioning and adoption barriers before investing millions?
Confident on two levels. First, digital twins and synthetic personas: data-grounded deep profiles of the designers, fabricators, installers, builders and facility operators who make or break a construction product’s success. Second, the voices that shape the channel itself… the editors, influencers and thought leaders – who grade – those solutions.
Not a survey. A verticalized, AI-activated magnifying glass. Focused on one channel.
And the leaders who move it.
The value is not merely the technology.
Instead, a grounded persona panel – supported by authentic industry experience and carefully controlled inputs – designed to help uncover highly relevant and actionable insights.
A Real-World Use Case
Recently, that was exactly how our team activated this unique panel to help determine market viability and GTM strategy in single-family housing and commercial markets for our client, XPEL.
This global leader in surface protection wished to weigh a brand launch into countertop and appliance protection. A new, fragmented category within the kitchen and bath channel.
The innovative solution did not need more data. Rather, it required confidence.
Pairing the panel with real-world validation, K&A pressure-tested positioning, pricing, objections and adoption barriers. And determined the findings that mattered most.
“Kleber & Associates brought a level of market understanding and strategic clarity that allowed us to move faster without sacrificing confidence. Their use of digital twins alongside real-world validation gave us a practical, cost-effective way to pressure-test the opportunity and define a clear path forward.”
– Chris DiMinico
Global Director, Product
XPEL
XPEL understood that commercialization isn’t simply introducing a product to market.
It’s translating one innovation into numerous conversations. And reasons to believe.
Buying committees have expanded and every audience expects expertise.
As such, general messaging – all too often can look generic – faster than ever.
That creates urgency.
One Last Thought
Mass reach is not disappearing.
Brands will celebrate and capitalize on awareness. Effective narratives will continue to introduce categories. While building familiarity.
Yet, as the largest national consumer brands are teaching everyone who is listening… reach cannot guarantee relevance.
The next advantage will belong to the Building Product Brands that understand which audiences matter most. What each community needs to believe. And how one promise must be confidently translated. Across each channel audience.
Because the strongest message is rarely the one built for everyone.
It is the one that makes the right audience… feel understood.
The real question isn’t whether your company has enough awareness.
It’s whether every audience hears a reason to believe that was built specifically for them.
At Kleber & Associates, we’ve invested nearly four decades in helping Building Product Brands align sales, marketing and communications with the audiences that drive growth. As your team is weighing how audience intelligence, synthetic personas and our Vertical Persona Panel could sharpen your effectiveness… I’d welcome the conversation. sk@kleberandassociates.com
